"There are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments in the just released video; no woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior," McCain said. | AP Photo

How McCain finally decided he couldn't stomach Trump anymore

Donald Trump criticized John McCain last year for being a prisoner of war and for not doing enough for veterans, then attacked a Gold Star family this summer. McCain criticized Trump at each turn, but stuck by his pledges to support the Republican nominee.

But 24 hours after audio surfaced of Trump demeaning women and making lewd comments about them, the 2008 Republican nominee decided he'd finally had enough.

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The Arizona Republican said in a statement to POLITICO, later blasted out to the national media, that he simply can no longer stand behind his party's standard-bearer. He used similar language on Saturday to that of Vice President Joe Biden, who said Trump's comments of groping women amounted to "sexual assault."

"I thought it important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set. I thought I owed his supporters that deference," McCain said on Saturday. "But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy."

It's a stark reversal for McCain, as Saturday was for many Republicans. In an interview ahead of his primary triumph over Kelli Ward, McCain said that he had no plans to abandon Trump in his general election campaign.

"No," McCain said in late August, when it appeared that Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) was offering him a tough reelection challenge. "There's no reason to do that."

But Trump's stock tanked in the ensuing six weeks. And McCain cited issues that other Republican didn't touch in their statements abandoning Trump, particularly Trump's continued insistence that five men in New York accused of a 1989 rape were guilty even after they were exonerated.

"Just this week, he made outrageous statements about the innocent men in the Central Park Five case," McCain said. "There are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments in the just released video; no woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior. He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences."

McCain has led Kirkpatrick by double-digits in recent polls, a cushion that allowed McCain to leave the state to campaign for more endangered Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Kirkpatrick, like other Democrats up against Republicans who bailed on Trump, said McCain was only opposing the nominee now out of "political calculation."

"If it takes a full day for McCain to decide something is inappropriate, then he clearly doesn't have the leadership Arizonans need," Kirkpatrick said on Saturday. "He missed the chance to show political courage and lead. He failed that test. Now, it’s too late, John McCain. The people of Arizona deserve better.”

McCain had taken more knocks from Trump than probably any Republican in Congress. Many thought Trump's knock on McCain that he prefers "people that weren't captured," delivered soon after he announced for president, would sink his candidacy. McCain said Trump should apologize to other POWs, but not himself.

As Trump toppled one Republican rival after another during the primary contest, McCain privately worried what it would mean for his own reelection prospects if Trump prevailed. At a spring fundraiser, McCain said Trump as the nominee would mean he'd be in for the race of his life, given the business mogul's harsh rhetoric about immigration and Latinos, a surging constituency in Arizona.

But after Trump won, McCain backed him through gritted teeth because of his long-held pledge to support the nominee.

Even then, Trump initially refused to endorse McCain in his primary, saying "I've never been a big fan of John McCain" before eventually coming around. After he won his primary, McCain even spoke to Trump briefly in a short conversation arranged by Rudy Giuliani.

Recently, McCain has refused to discuss Trump at all, directing a POLITICO reporter to get off a Senate subway train with him if he wanted to ask about Trump. McCain was happy to discuss Mike Pence, however, who many Republicans now wish would replace Trump as the nominee.

“I’ve said everything I have to say about Trump. What more do you want me to say? You want me to repeat myself over and over again?” McCain said at the time.

But Trump's last couple days changed everything for McCain. After discussing the matter with his wife, Cindy McCain, the former presidential nominee finally concluded that he couldn't defend Trump another minute.

"Cindy and I will not vote for Donald Trump. I have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and we will not vote for Hillary Clinton. We will write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be President," McCain said in the statement.